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Wednesday, 10 February 2016

"The Keyboard Sir"

Abhijay
Malviya, Bronze Award holder from The British School, New Delhi is sharing
his transforming experience.

My name
is Abhijay and I’m from the British School, New Delhi. The Award Programme
has dramatically changed my personality in many ways. During my Bronze Award
journey I continued learning the piano and passed with a merit in my
Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) exam. I played
basketball three times a week and participated in the academy level
tournament. Moreover, I went on an Adventurous Journey to Southern India,
where I cycled long distances and participated in many activities, such as
rappelling to name a few.

However,
the most transforming experience was at a school for the underprivileged
children at Saksham Bal Vikas, an NGO in Gurgaon. The parents of the students
in the school are mostly workers and street stall owners, who don’t have the
money to send their wards to school. I believe that the under privileged in the
country need to be educated so that India can grow as a modern nation, and
institutions like this should be set up everywhere. What I learnt from
interacting with these children is that they are extremely optimistic with
big ideas, but did not have the available opportunities to follow their ideas
before joining school.

Since
this school was already teaching academics, I decided to show them another
side to the coin, the side they had great desire for and where they could
really express their creativity: Music. On the first day, they were very
excited to see my keyboard. To cope with the excitement I taught them the
basics of composition, a move which would not have been the best at an early
stage but I couldn't take the risk of boring them with some
theoretical knowledge! They even started calling me ‘Keyboard Sir’. Overall
their happiness along with the driving determination for success really made
me reflect on my own life, and if I have to take away one learning experience
from this, it would be to appreciate what’s given and stay focused to
capitalize on opportunities. Click for pictures